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evolution of english as a global language
Evolution of the English language to modern English
the evolution of language
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[Writer Name] [Supervisor Name] [Subject] [Date] History of the English Language and some of the many Factors that have influenced its Evolution Language is surely the most influential form of communication. It is the most powerful instrument an individual can have. By definition, language is the use voice sounds by human beings, organized in order to express and communicate thoughts and feelings. It is what has shaped our society into what it has become today, what has allowed our civilization to excel and progress into what is now modern day. Language has allowed the individual to communicate within a group as well as within him in order to accomplish many goals. Language gives us a means by which we can organize our ideas and thoughts into rational, logical actions. It is also a vehicle by which we can gather, analyze, and learn from information. The main components of any language are a sender, a receiver, a message, and a medium. Noise and feedback come afterwards. The sender encodes a message and through the medium sends it to the receiver who decodes it to understand it. This is how any language works. The encoding is done in words, or vocabulary, which the receiver interprets according to his perception and context. During the last few centuries, the vocabulary of English has evolved at a very rapid speed (Wheeler 17). The usage of vocabulary also depends upon whether it is being used in English language or English literature. Literature basically means writings in prose or verse; especially the writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest. Stories, dramas, novels, novelettes, poetry, etc. or ideas related to these come under literature (Peck and Coyle 13). I...
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...ost common ways to produce new words is the process called borrowing, which is the taking over of words from other languages. The English language has always been adopting so-called loanwords from other languages. Some examples are elephant (Arabic origin), croissant (French origin), yogurt (Turkish origin), pretzel and kindergarten (both German origin). A language or languages evolve just as individuals evolve, nations evolve, and humans evolve. And evolution means that the only permanent thing is change. Works Cited Baugh, Albert. A History of the English Language. Routledge. 1963 Wheeler, Rebecca. The Workings of Language: From Prescriptions to Perspectives. Praeger. 1999 Peck, John; Coyle, Martin. A Brief History of English Literature. Palgrave Macmillan. 2002 Naomi, Baron. Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It’s Heading. Routledge. 2001
“I also knew that, while I had many things to say, I did not have the words to say them. Painfully aware of my limitations, I watched helplessly as language became an obstacle. It became clear that it would be necessary to invent a new language. But how was one to rehabilitate and transform words betrayed and perverted by the enemy? Hunger-thirst-fear-transport-selection-fire-chimney: these words all have intrinsic meaning, but in those times, they meant something else” (p.
The author, Bill Bryson, briefly introduces and describes the history of English. In this book, The Mother Tongue, Bryson uses an interesting way and scholarly manner to guide readers through the various linguistic and social movements in the English language, the center of the world language as well as the export of manufactured goods. He gives different kinds of instances by comparing with various languages to present how the language merged together of interacting.
Peter Trudgill argues that overtime the meanings of words have been changed by society in order to fit the general understanding of a word. He defends his argument against people that claim the definition of a word should come from its origin. However, Trudgill illustrates the transition words have undergone throughout history, and how those affects are arbitrary to when it comes to communication now.
In his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell asserts that the words, common discussions, and collective literary works, in English encompass less coherency, innovation, and power than ever before; the English language is on a decline. Using strong evidence from quoted figures to justify his claim, Orwell’s argument begins in a strong way and continues at this pace until the end. He stumbles over a contradiction when it comes to the idea that foreign words should be eliminated, yet the argument is overall successful, clearly making a valid point by the end of the essay.
A: New words do get added to languages. So when the English language came to North America, words like kayak, which is an Inuit word, were added. Languages grow more than they shrink. Also, we have many words that are called “learned borrowings” – more from Greek than Latin. Word like hysterectomy, which comes from Greek. Womb= hyster
Since it’s been a predominant topic of our discussion, let us talk about the infamous English language. We can be sure that it has painstakingly progressed throughout generations of reevaluation and modernization, and has thus become what it is today. It has gone in several directions to try and mesh with the various epochs of language, from the Shakespearean era to the common English slang we use now, we can all agree that English is a language that has been transcending and will continue to transcend into many
In Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson argues the importance of preserving language. Other dialects had a produced their own dictionaries, such as the French and Italians. Various writers of the eighteenth century were alarmed at the fact that there was no standard for the English language, since there was no standard it could easily become extinct. Johnson explored many points, such as how and why languages change as well as how many words are formed.
The legacy of humankind is over two million years old and counting, but the history of literature is only a few thousand years old at most. As humans, we have needed time to create new ideas and evolve into our current world that is filled with wisdom. The amount of literature is diminutive compared to the amount of history because a large storage of background knowledge is necessary to construct the basis and inspiration for English works.
how the English language has changed in the many years from then until now. The
Crystal, David. The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language. London: Penguin Books, 2002
George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language” discusses the effect that political and economic changes have on the language of a society. Orwell’s essay is based largely on his opinion that the English language has declined as a result of the economic and political changes that the world experienced. He explains how simple English is more effective for telling someone what you want to say instead of using large, confusing and foreign words that will only make you sound smart. Orwell argues that these words are useless and that they fill our essays with words that take away the meaning of the essay and have no value. Orwell creates a tone of dominance over his writing. He makes readers feel that he is in charge of his writing and
Baugh, A.C., & Cable, T. (2001). A history of the English language (5th ed.). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements. In modern times, this is the most important way of vocabulary expansion. There is a variety of means to produce words. The most productive are affixation, composition and conversion. Let's focus on one of them: composition.
The authors have attempted in this paper to explain how the English vocabulary evolves and grows. They have identified over a dozen ways in which this happens, some of the more common being imitation, new meanings, change of speech, affixation, portmanteau words etc. They have supplied a large number of examples to substantiate their points.
The Norman invasion of 1066 AD began a period of two centuries in which French was the official language of England, resulting in the introduction of many words with French or Latin roots, such as 'baron', 'justice' and 'government' (Beal, J. 2012, p. 64). English was first used in Parliament in 1362 AD and gradually displaced French (Appendix I, in Seargea...